Outspoken NZ political commentator Lindsay Perigo has voiced his "despair" over news that the British government is proposing a law to ban homophobic speech. Lindsay Perigo British Justice Secretary Jack Straw announced earlier this month plans to outlaw gay hate crime with the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill. The bill is designed outlaw homophobia and "help deter and tackle extremists and bigots who stir up hatred against LGBT people." Straw said it was time for the law to recognise society was "appalled by hatred and invective" directed at people because of their sexuality and that it was “time for the law to recognise this." Homosexuals, once the victims of Nazism, are now among its foremost advocates, Perigo, who is openly gay himself, responds. Perigo describes the bill as a "brazen assault on free speech by Britain's PC Labour Government on behalf of Politically Correct poofs". He cites British gay commentator Christopher Biggins' comment in a Daily Mail newspaper column: "I despair at the mood of edict-issuing, word-censoring dreariness that seems to have overtaken the leaders of the gay rights movement. They, more than anyone, should be on the side of flamboyance, eccentricity, laughter and earthiness. "Instead, they are acting like old commissars of some Eastern bloc regime or a bunch of Victorian moral puritans, clamping down on politically incorrect words." Perigo warns: "Make no mistake, these book-burners will soon enough be attempting to have the United Nations require similar laws all over the world, including New Zealand." Ref: Sense of Life Objectionists (m)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Thursday, 25th October 2007 - 1:06pm